Ball Possession Becomes Xavi Hernandez’s Football Philosophy

DBasia.news –  In carrying out his role as a professional coach, Barcelona legend Xavi Henandez explains what football philosophy he believes. Hernandez revealed that possession of the ball is the most important thing.

Xavi, 39, is a La Masia academy dropout, played in the Barcelona first team (1998-2015), and became world and European champions with the Spanish national team. All success was achieved thanks to his belief in a football philosophy.

Mastery of the ball, playing offensive and entertaining has been embedded in Xavi since he was playing first. Now, he applies it to the club from Qatar, Al-Sadd. One step was passed at the Inter-Club World Cup event.

Xavi brought Al-Sadd to the quarter-finals after a 3-1 win over Hienghene at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium on Thursday (12/12) early morning local time, through goals scored by Baghdad Bounedjah (26′), Abdelkarim Hassan (100′), and Ro-Ro (114′) who replied to a goal from Antoine Roine (46′).

In the match, Al-Sadd was not as perfect as Xavi had imagined, but Xavi’s DNA was slightly embedded through 69 percent possession versus 31 percent, with a total of 37 and 15 kicks on target.

The number of operands is 806 times and the operant accuracy is 84 percent. But, with a count of 15 kicks on target and 37 kicks, with only a score of three goals, Al-Sadd has not played efficiently.

“We wasted a few easy chances (to score); we were unable to score. In the extra round, we were able to score a goal and were lucky not to continue on penalties. I am happy to advance to the next stage of the tournament,” Xavi said on the Al-Sadd official website.

Escaped to the quarter-finals, Al-Sadd will meet with a Mexican club, Monterrey. This club is far more dangerous than Hienghene because they have international players who strengthen the national team.

Some of the names are like Miguel Layun, Maximiliano Meza. and Jonathan Urretaviscaya, and former Dutch national team striker Vincent Janssen. Heavy duties await Xavi to bring Al-Sadd to go as far as possible in the Club World Cup.

One thing that is definitely interesting to look forward to in the match later is the game of Al-Sadd against a team that is faster, stronger in terms of individual quality. It’s not easy to dominate possession, but Al-Sadd’s philosophy of possession will remain if they don’t want to … suffer.

“I describe myself as someone who likes to own the ball. I am there in the technical area suffering if my team does not have the ball. Just like when I play: I like to control the ball,” Xavi said on FIFA’s official website.

“What I want for my team is control and I think you have it when you have the ball. That’s how I was taught at Barca and the national team. I make sure we continue to work on ball possession in each training session and I have players who try to win the ball as fast maybe.”

“That is my philosophy: mastering the ball – not just sitting and waiting (defending) – and continuing to attack, because the more often you create chances, the more chance you win. I am surprised at myself when I start training I don’t think much about the defensive side competition.”

“But now you suffer. You suffer when you don’t control the ball. That’s 30-40 percent possession that you don’t have when working as hard as possible,” concluded Xavi.